Michael Carandang: Putting Pinoys on the map

MANILA, Philippines - The man responsible for putting plenty of Pinoy talent on the reality TV map is currently at Ben Chan’s library, a glass-enclosed chamber overlooking the Bench head honcho’s immaculately-tended garden.

Michael Carandang, a producer for America’s Next Top Model, is home to celebrate Christmas. The LA-based Carandang is currently celebrating the holidays at a party hosted by Chan which is peppered with a long list of bold-faced names like Randy Ortiz, who recently collaborated with Bench, showbiz folks like Gretchen Barretto with Tonyboy Cojuangco, Lucy Torres-Gomez, Richard Gomez, Raymond Gutierrez and Lovi Poe, industry insiders like Patrick Rosas, Liz Uy and Robbie Carmona as well as socialite Kaye Tinga and celebrity dermatologist Aivee Aguilar-Teo.

Garbed in a T-shirt and denim jacket, Carandang is a young go-getter determined to see Pinoys on the world stage — and by that he means the mainstream America. He’s responsible for Michael Cinco’s debut on network television in the US. Carandang, after all, discovered Cinco the not-so-old-fashioned way — on Facebook.

“I came across photos by Ash Reginald Evasco on Philippine Fashion Week and he’d posted pictures of Michael’s clothes. And I was blown away,” he remembers. “His clothes reminded me so much of Paris couture, of Alexander McQueen.”

Cinco, for those who don’t remember, created clothes for

Michael Carandang, Adrien Semblat, Isabelle Daza and Ben Chan

America’s Next Top Model

’s landfill shoot. Models in larger-than-life ensembles — the skirts on those dresses could’ve comfortably carpeted a pick-up truck — posed against mountains of refuse.

“I’ve never had so many people come up to me after the shoot with compliments,” he says, referring to crew and product team members.

“Michael Cinco was the first Pinoy on the show, the first unknown, so he had to prove himself the most,” Carandang observes.

Since Cinco, recent Metrowear designer Oliver Tolentino’s gowns graced the latest All-Star season. And, most recently, Bench Body underwear participated in the latest cycle of ANTM’s “Greek Salad” shoot. Contestants had to pose inside a salad bowl embellished with a Greek key pattern, crowded with greens, tomatoes and blocks of feta.

The Next Top Model impresario is proud to celebrate his roots on the show, telling The STAR: “Anything I can do to show off how talented my country people are, I’m willing to do.” His cheerleader status is part of his background, growing up in Middle America without seeing representations of people from similar backgrounds and ethnicities on popular media.

A Tanauan, Batangas native who migrated to Indiana at 13 in the early ’90s, he ended up in a town that was 90-percent white. “They didn’t know much about Filipinos or Asians in general,” he recalls. “We were the only Pinoy family in the neighborhood.”

Talk The Talk

Meeting in Greece: Standing are Miguel Pastor, Michael Carandang and Noel Manapat. Seated are Ben Chan, Michael Cinco and Georgina Wilson

He later honed his producer chops on the brawl-packed talk show Jerry Springer shortly after graduation, armed with a telecommunications degree.

“My friend interned for Springer,” he says. “That’s how I got my foot in the door.”

Soon after, he shifted to the Tyra Banks Show, which famously included an episode featuring Banks getting a breast examination to prove that her chest wasn’t surgically-enhanced. “We won Daytime Emmys,” says Carandang.

The Pinoy producer only has praises for his boss: “She’s one of the smartest, most business-savvy people I’ve had the honor of meeting.”

While climbing the ranks of reality TV, he worked with celebs like Demi Lovato. He recently hung out in Vogue Italia’s office with Franca Sozzani, the gray-haired front-row regular with an eclectic aesthetic. On Roberto Cavalli, who he encountered while taping the show, he says: “He’s a charmer. He loves women and he loves to dress them.”

He met with tabloid bait, the Kardashians, on a recent episode of ANTM. 

“They are exactly like they are on TV. Khloe Kardashian is really funny and outgoing. In the Philippines, you’d call her bakla.”

And the recently-separated Kim? “Quiet and sweet. And really beautiful.”

Sharing the Filipino story

“All throughout my career, as much as possible, I’d try to share the Filipino story. Even on Jerry Springer, I kept trying to bring in Asians. And now, on ANTM, I try to book an Asian or Filipino model, when I’d see the lineup. It’s not just black/white/Hispanic. I try to get everyone represented on the show.”

Though Filipinos have been trying to break into show business abroad, only a few have made the cut. Carandang suggested that Pinoys merely have to bide their time. “There’s nothing wrong with Filipinos, first of all. Our time in the spotlight will come.” He goes on to note how some actors of Indian descent have made it on TV. “Now there’s an Indian dude on every sitcom.”

“I do what I can,” he says of his efforts to put Pinoys on the map. “All I can tell everyone reading this is to always try: keep going to castings, keep doing interesting things, just keep trying.”